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When student agency is amplified by the integration of modern technologies, students have great potential to solve real-world problems and learn in a deep and engaging way. And yet often schools are hesitant to provide students with true agency. Richardson looks at some powerful student projects and inventions that were possible through agency and technology and discusses how schools can tap into this powerful combination.

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded with the principal mission to educate Black people during an era when they were barred from most postsecondary opportunities. Today, these institutions play a vital role in the higher education landscape and help to insure the long-term viability of the U.S. economy. This research explored public discourse regarding HBCU bomb threats during 2022 and how public comments reflected on issues of race(ism), power, intimidation and domestic terrorism as a continuation of historical violence against Black Americans. The authors employed critical content analysis techniques and Critical Race Theory, while examining social media posts from X (formerly known as Twitter) as an innovative data source regarding public dialogue. The findings discuss two overarching themes within public discourse about these campus safety threats—(1) racism and White supremacy; and (2) political (in)action. These findings provide insights concerning perceptions of historical and contemporary racial oppression and terrorism experienced by Black individuals. The findings also highlight discourse concerning the ways in which racism and White supremacy were perpetuated by national political forces and (in)actions. Moreover, the findings reflect the ways in which public discourse situate racism as a norm in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a discussion from the journal Faraday Discussions on the topic of metal anodes and protected interfaces in lithium-oxygen batteries. The participants discuss various aspects of battery performance, including the use of lithium peroxide in the anode, the stability of materials against water and carbon dioxide, the deposition of lithium on copper electrodes, and the impact of depth of discharge and current density. They also discuss the fabrication of pinhole-free LLZO membranes and the use of ceramic electrolytes. The researchers have made observations on metal ion migration, short circuit formation, and the compatibility of LLZO with different liquid electrolytes. They have disclosed their conflicts of interest. [Extracted from the article]

Before the end of this decade, almost 5 billion people will carry mobile devices. Will Richardson asserts that because this technology creates ubiquitous, complex, immediate connections to the world, the most important skill is the skill of being able to learn. "Students moving into adulthood today," he writes, "need more than anything else to be voracious, passionate learners, adept at creating their own personal learning curriculum, finding their own teachers to help mentor and guide them in their efforts, and connecting with other learnings with whom they can collaborate and create." Richardson cites research suggesting that children are born with many of these dispositions, but the kind of explicit instruction that traditionally goes on in schools serves to discourage them. He recommends that school change by (1) clearly articulating the abilities they want to develop in learners; (2) creating deep learning cultures in which all--both adults and students--are viewed as learners; and (3) giving students greater freedom to pursue their own interests.

The author of this article writes about how this moment of technological explosion raises a host of important questions for education leaders that speak directly to the way people think about the potentials of technology in school.The author asserts that if technology is seen simply as additive, the questions will be about the technology: Should schools get iPads or laptops? Does every classroom need an interactive whiteboard? What apps are best to engage students? The author posits that, while these are important questions, the real issue is not about the layering expensive technology on top of the traditional curriculum. Instead, it is about addressing the new needs of modern learners in entirely new ways. Once teachers understand that it is about learning, the questions reframe themselves in terms of the ecological shifts that are necessary: What does it mean to be literate in a networked, connected world? What does it mean to be educated? What do students need to know and be able to do to be successful in their futures? Educators must lead inclusive conversations in their communities around such questions to better inform decisions about technology and change. To understand the implications fully, teachers need to start with the questions that focus on the students--and not just on the stuff.

In this era of access, personalizing learning means allowing students to choose their own paths through the curriculum. However, the ability to learn what we want, when we want it, and with whomever we want creates a huge push against a system of education steeped in time-and-place learning. Fundamental changes need to happen in schools to provide students with the skills and experiences they need to do this type of learning well. Students need to be able to chart their own course and find their passion. Technology can help make this kind of learning routine in schools. The author cautions readers to not confuse the more in-depth, personal, self-directed learning that we can now pursue in online networks and communities with the "personalized" opportunities that some schools are currently opening up to students.

The idea of learning through games isn't necessarily new. In fact, over the past decade, researchers have been espousing the use of games to help both children and adults learn. But it's only been recently that games have begun to make serious inroads into classrooms. As the world becomes more and more driven by mobile apps and tablet technologies, the games that kids are playing at home (and a variety of others) are slowly but surely making their way into classrooms across the world. Computing power and graphics are making games much more engaging. If what most observers say is true, people are at the beginning of a serious shift in the way they think about and employ video games and simulations in learning situations. Students will learn not just the content of the traditional curriculum, but, more importantly, the skills and learning dispositions they need to create, to solve problems, and to collaborate throughout their lives. The classroom is the perfect place to get kids reflecting on the really sophisticated thinking they do while playing these games. When they collaborate, they can solve more-complex problems than they can alone, and when they share strategies, it encourages that metacognition. Ultimately, they can apply those same problem-solving strategies in their real lives as well, and that's where the real payoff is. (Contains 11 online resources.)

Students need opportunities throughout the curriculum to follow their passions and publish quality work for global audiences to interact with. Social media afford the opportunity for students to contribute to the world in meaningful ways, do real work for real audiences for real purposes, find great teachers and collaborators from around the world, and become great teachers in their own right. This article addresses information literacy, technology, youth culture, and learning.

It's been almost 40 years since the teaching of writing in schools had its last major shift, a move to an emphasis on the "writing process," which still holds sway in most classrooms today. But with the advent of Web-based social networking tools like blogs and wikis, YouTube and Facebook, it may be that the next revision of writing pedagogy is upon individuals, one that emphasizes digital spaces, multimedia texts, global audiences and linked conversations among passionate readers. Research shows that students are flocking to online networks in droves, and they are doing a great deal of writing there already, some of it creative and thoughtful and inspiring, but much of it outside the traditional expectations of "good writing" that classrooms require. How educators begin to teach students to flourish in these more complex, online social spaces is a fundamental question many schools are beginning to tackle, not necessarily because they want to but because they realize the very nature of writing is changing. That change is spelled out clearly by the National Council of Teachers of English, which last year published "new literacies" for readers and writers in the 21st century. Among those literacies are the ability to "build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally," to "design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes," and to "create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts." In this article, the authors discuss the new shift of writing instruction and pedagogy which uses social networking tools to keep up with student interests.

Being literate in the 21st century means being able to function in and leverage the potential of collaborative, transparent online groups and networks. Before educators can help their students make the most of this powerful potential, they need to understand that the willingness to share one's work--and to some extent one's personal life--fosters these connections. Although many students are used to sharing content online, they need to learn how to share within the context of network building. In addition, they need to understand that publishing has a nobler goal than just readership--and that's engagement. Educators must help students learn how to identify their passions; build connections to others who share those passions; and communicate, collaborate, and work collectively with online networks.

This article discusses a group of new technologies--blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking, online photo galleries, and RSS (Real Simple Syndication)--collectively referred to as the Read/Write web. These tools allow users to easily create and publish online content, and are beginning to have a profound impact on curriculum, classroom instruction, and professional practice. For educators, the new technologies raise a number of important questions. The benefits of using the Read/Write web (freer flow of information, continuous revision, ubiquitous connection to information, and the more social nature of online communication) are discussed, along with their implications for education and some potential disadvantages.

The Internet is no longer only a place to research information. It is now also a forum through which users can publish and disseminate their own writing. Richardson describes some of the main tools that make this new "Read/Write Web" work--blogs, wikis, really simple syndication, and podcasting--and gives examples of how each can be used to enhance students' research capabilities, connect students to content experts, and provide a wider audience for student work. He argues that the new research and publishing possibilities the Web opens up, which millions of young people engage in, have implications for keeping teaching relevant. Schools must reexamine what kinds of skills students need to participate meaningfully in this online exchange of knowledge and ideas. Teachers need to reconsider their teaching methods, their use of textbooks when more updated material is available online, and their ideas about student collaboration and the audiences for student work.

The majority of educators today are locked in a system that prepares students for a world that has long since passed, instead of a future that is already here. While the world continues to change rapidly, the ability to react to those changes is stymied by age old beliefs about what education should be, increasingly irrelevant expectations and mandatory assessments, and their own lack of understanding as to how these tools and these technologies fundamentally change the way they learn. Challenge as educators right now is to begin to reenvision their classrooms and their practice in order to help their students leverage these new connections and networks and, to put it bluntly, to stay relevant in their learning lives. This requires thinking deeply about the types of skills and literacies that 21st century learners will need in order to be as successful as they can be. More and more, the skills that their students need to take with them are those that will provide a strong foundation for their own lifelong learning, ones that help them navigate a much more complex and changing landscape of information.

Podcasting is just one of a suite of new tools that are taking the Internet and its users to new heights. Podcasting involves the creation of digital audio files and the distribution of those files in a way that makes it easy for visitors to listen to them wherever and whenever it is convenient. In schools, podcasts have been quick to take root. This article provides ideas on how libraries can harness the power of podcasts. This article also provides ideas on how to create podcasts.

RSS or Real Simple Syndication is a technology that allows an information user to subscribe to "feeds" or streams of information from any number of content producers, including traditional media outlets and blogs, all for free. With RSS, one can connect to more information in less time, thus keeping track of news, ideas, and conversations almost as they happen. Instead of pointing and clicking through dozens of sites to learn what's new, RSS brings it all together in one place. This article explains how RSS works and how RSS feeds can be used in schools. This article also provides strategies on how to get started with RSS. A list of links that provide valuable information on RSS is also presented.

There is a growing consensus that much of a student's learning life will be spent interacting online and teachers must be willing to expand the scope of literacy in a world where texts are unedited. Teachers need to help students become comfortable reading electronically distributed texts, teach them to be critical of what they are reading and how to write for a wider audience.

Blogs, wikis, and other nifty Web-based tools, ones that enable everyone to create and distribute content like never before, get all the glory, it seems. Then there are the applications that help them organize all that material that they consume online. Though not as sexy, perhaps, as blogging or podcasting, social bookmarking is equally empowering to users, helping them make sense of what they find and use on the Web and, even better, enabling them to share their treasures with others. While traditional library methods have effectively tamed print resources, the digital content residing on more than one billion Web pages is a different beast altogether. Enter social bookmarking, tagging, and folksonomies. In a nutshell, the operating principle behind these concepts is this: if one finds something interesting enough to save, odds are good that you will, too. And together, using these tools, everybody can build comprehensive resource lists much more effectively than any one of them could working alone. Exemplifying the wisdom of crowds, these applications are fast becoming an important resource for relevant information.

This article takes a look at tech guru Will Richardson's new book, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms." Whether it's blogs or wikis or RSS, all roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation. The biggest, most sweeping change in the people's relationship with the Internet may not be as much the ability to publish as it is the ability to share, connect, and create with many, many others of like minds and interests. These social connections, these "small pieces loosely joined," as author David Weinberger puts it, are where the real power and potential of the Read/Write Web lies for educators and students. The collaborative construction of knowledge by those willing to contribute is redefining the ways people think about teaching and learning at every level. This vision is much different from the traditional classroom where most student work is done in isolation, never finding connections to a larger whole that might be produced by the class in its entirety. With blogs and wikis, these social interactions focus on the creation of content and meaning. They can be collaborative spaces where people negotiate and construct meaning and texts. Regardless of how you do it, the idea that people can now use social networks to tap into the work of others to support their own learning is an important concept to understand. Examples of other tools that are being borne out on the Read/Write Web that focus primarily on creating connections rather than creating content are provided.

The Internet is more than just a place to consume information as it invites users to create and publish their own contributions and also help students in finding authentic audiences for their work. Weblogs, or blogs, wikis, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and podcasts are some of the new technologies that support the Read/Write tools that can be used to enhance the students' learning abilities.

Blogs are not a passing fad as a new blog is created every second. There are more than 900,000 blog posts a day. Blogs are one of many new disruptive technologies that are transforming the world. They are creating a richer, more dynamic, more interactive Web where participation is the rule rather than the exception. Classrooms and schools are about to be enveloped by these changes as well. In this article, the author relates that in his school, Web logs are used as collaborative spaces where students, teachers, and guests can build content together. He also discusses the safety issues concerning children accessing certain sites.